System and method for tracking a box and correlating a quality characteristic of the box to an overall equipment effectiveness of a packaging line that manipulates the box during a product packaging process

A system for tracking a box and correlating a quality characteristic associated with the box to an overall equipment effectiveness of a packaging line that manipulates the box during a product packaging process, the system comprising:

• a hardware applicator disposed and configured to apply a unique identifier to a pre-erected form of the box, the unique identifier being associated with at least one quality characteristic of the pre-erected form of the box;
• a first machine reader disposed and configured to read the applied unique identifier;
• a machine readable database disposed and configured to store the read unique identifier and the associated at least one quality characteristic;
• a converter disposed and configured physically to convert the pre-erected form of the box into an erected box;
• a second machine reader disposed and configured to read the unique identifier of the associated erected box;
• a hardware material handler disposed and configured to physically advance the erected box through the packaging line;
• a first processing circuit responsive to executable instructions which when executed by the first processing circuit, and in response to determining that the erected box is involved in a disruption in the packaging line, correlates the captured unique identifier of the associated erected box with the associated disruption and saves a record of the disruption and the unique identifier in a storage medium.